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Buying a whole or half beef is one of the best ways to know exactly where your family's food comes from—and it can be a great way to stock your freezer with quality, regeneratively raised protein.
But if you've never purchased a whole animal before, we know it can also feel a little overwhelming!
How much meat will I actually get? What cuts are included? Can I get the organs and bones? How much freezer space do I need?
We get these questions all the time, so we put together this guide to walk you through the Richards Regenerative Whole & Half Beef Program.
Yes.
Our cattle are raised on pasture and aregrass fed and grass finished—no grain.
Our program is:
American Grassfed Certified
Land to Market Verified Regenerative
Pasture raised
No grain
No added hormones
No antibiotics
No synthetic fertilizers or herbicides used on our grazed pastures
We use holistic grazing practices with an emphasis on building healthier soil and healthier land while raising healthy animals.
Our whole-animal beef comes fromRichards Land and Cattle, our home ranch, or sometimes from our partner's ranch.
Working with trusted ranching partners allows us to grow our regenerative beef program while maintaining the standards that are important to us.
Our current price is$4.60 per pound based on hanging weight.
"Hanging weight" is the weight of the carcass after harvest and before it is cut and packaged by the butcher.
A typical whole beef looks something like this:
Approximate hanging weight: 725 lbs
Beef: ~$3,335
Harvest & transportation: $350
Butchering & packaging: ~$1,225
A half beef would be approximately half the cost.
Because every animal is a little different, these are estimates. Your final price is based on the actual hanging weight of your animal and the butcher's charges.
A typical whole beef will provide approximately:
Depending on what you request, you may also receive an additional:
A half beef will provide approximately half of those amounts.
Keep in mind that725 lbs of hanging weight does not equal 725 lbs of packaged meat.
During butchering, weight is lost through bones, trimming, moisture loss, fat, and other portions of the animal that don't end up in your packaged cuts.
This is one of the fun parts!
You'll work directly withCountry Butcher to choose how you'd like your beef cut.
Your freezer can include a combination of:
Ribeyes
New York strips
Filets
Sirloin steaks
Roasts
Brisket
Short ribs
Ground beef
Soup and marrow bones
And more
The exact number of steaks, roasts, and pounds of ground beef will depend on the animaland the cutting instructions you choose.
For example, choosing more steaks or specialty cuts can change how much meat ultimately becomes ground beef.
That means your beef can be customized around how your family actually cooks and eats.
Absolutely—and we love when customers want to use the whole animal!
You can request available items such as:
Heart
Liver
Cheeks
Bones
Kidney fat
Other available offal
There is one important difference with offal:
Your packaged beef won't be ready from the butcher yet, so this requires a separate trip to the ranch.
We get asked about tallow a lot!
Our butcher does not commercially render tallow for you, but youcan make your own tallow at home.
Ask the butcher to save your fat or request the kidney fat, which you can render yourself.
We even have a step-by-step guide:
Try Our Two Beef Tallow Recipes
It's another great way to get more value from your animal and embrace nose-to-tail eating.
A whole beef is a LOT of food.
For approximately 425 lbs of packaged beef, we recommend havingat least one full-size upright freezer ready before pickup.
For a half beef, you'll need approximately half that amount of freezer space.
Don't wait until pickup day to figure this part out!
Our beef is processed at:
Country Butcher
5860 Feather River Blvd.
Olivehurst, CA 95961
You'll pick up your packaged beef directly from the butcher.
The meat will befully frozen at sub-zero temperatures when you receive it.
For our Sacramento-area customers, Country Butcher is only about a50-minute drive from Sacramento, so your beef will not significantly thaw during the drive home.
You don't need to pack hundreds of pounds of beef into coolers for that short trip—just make sure you have enough room in your vehicle for all of the boxes and an empty freezer waiting at home!
We currently sell our whole-animal beef as:
or
We don't offer quarters because dividing an animal into equal quarters is surprisingly difficult. The front and rear portions contain very different cuts, so each "quarter" can vary considerably.
But there is an easy solution:
Many of our customers do exactly that.
Our2026 whole-animal beef is SOLD OUT.
We are currently taking deposits for:
Whole and half beef options are available.
Deposit: $500
Once your harvest date is scheduled, the deposit is non-refundable.
If your family eats beef regularly, buying a whole or half animal can be a wonderful way to simplify your food supply.
Instead of wondering where your meat came from, you know.
You know how the animal was raised.
You know the ranch.
You know the grazing practices.
And you have a freezer full of quality protein ready whenever you need it.
That's one of the reasons we love selling directly to families.
We'd be happy to walk you through your first whole-animal purchase.
Call: 510-390-4707
Email: carrie@richardsgrassfedbeef.com
Check here for current availability: https://richardsregenerative.com/collections/ranch-products